


Watch Your Step

by MedicateMeDrMcCoy



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blood, Comfort/Angst, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, Medical Scenarios, Reader Insert, but readers gonna take good care of him, hospital stay, lots of hurt leonard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-22 15:07:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14311344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MedicateMeDrMcCoy/pseuds/MedicateMeDrMcCoy
Summary: You and Leonard are a team and off collecting samples on a new planet. You aren't paying attention and Leonard steps in and pays the price.





	Watch Your Step

“Are we there yet?” A voice grumbled quietly from behind you. Leonard was hot and sweaty and wanted nothing more than to be back in his Medbay or anywhere but here really, but after being ordered by Jim to “suit up” he had little say in the matter, it really wasn’t worth the arguments.

“Leonard, you’re worse than a five year old sometimes, you know that?” You laughed as you continued to walk enthusiastically through the dense jungle. You could feel Leonard’s scowl on the back of your head as you grabbed a branch from a nearby tree and pushed it back and ducked quickly, letting the branch lightly hit Leonard on the chest. You sent Leonard a smirk over your shoulder, to which Leonard’s scowl deepened.

“You’re lucky I love you so much, you know it?” Leonard huffed out, brushing the leaves from off his uniform, glaring at them like they had personally offended him. He’d never admit it but he was glad you had insisted on partnering up and going your own way. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with everyone else.

“Oh don’t be so dramatic. I think you’re the lucky one that I can put up with your grumpy self and dish it back. Besides, isn’t this what we signed up for? Exploring, finding new life, plants, animals, this planet is beautiful and were some of the first to lay eyes on it!” You said as you lifted and spread your arms, gesturing to the jungle around you, you loved it.

“You know exactly why I signed up. I signed up to be a doctor, not some jungle explorer! This is ridiculous, when I get back, Jim is getting…” Leonard continued to grumble, looking down and not paying attention to where he was going, causing him to run into you as you suddenly stopped. You turned around and Leonard was giving you a quizzical look.

“That is precisely why you’re here.” You replied slowly as you wrapped your arms around Leonard’s shoulders, playing with the hair at the base of his neck. “There is no better doctor aboard the Enterprise, probably in all of Starfleet for that matter, so who better to be down here looking after all the crew?” You closed the gap and pressed your lips softly to Leonard’s, earning a quiet moan from the other.

“I guess you do make a good point, sweetheart.” Leonard said with a small huff, pulling you back in for another quick kiss, grinning on your lips. Leonard loved you for your ability to always be able pull him out of a funk, especially when he didn’t realize he was even in one. It’s been a long time since he’s been able to claim being this happy in his life.

“You’re damn right I do. Now quit your fussing, were almost to the rendezvous point.” You replied as you poked Leonard’s stomach softly, causing him to laugh. You weren’t about to let Leonard’s grumbling ruin your good time of exploring, and you prided yourself on being able to get him to cheer up.

“Yes ma’am, I’m sorry.” Leonard replied, a smile now replacing his scowl as he adjusted his backpack on his shoulders, falling back into step behind you quietly. Leonard would never admit out loud that he was here for any other reason but to be a doctor, but finding you in the process was the best thing that’s ever happened to him and he was incredibly grateful that your paths crossed when they did.

You continued to walk with reckless abandon, fascinated with all the plants and insects and tiny creatures you came across, bouncing here and there between them all. Leonard wasn’t the least bit amused, always keeping an eye out for the unseen.

“Y/N, would you stop it and get back here? There’s no telling what these plants or creatures are carrying or capable of!” Leonard protested as you past by him for the upteenth time, running around like a kid in a candy shop.

“Oh lighten up a bit, Leonard! Again, this is the whole reason we’re here, to take samples so we can understand and figure out all of this stuff, it’s amazing!” You replied without looking up from the plant you were collecting flower samples from. Leonard rolled his eyes at your enthusiasm, but otherwise stayed quiet as he watched you and your surroundings carefully.

Leonard was about to take a break and sit in the shade nearby, while you continued to work until something caught his eye. A long thin rope that was tied between a couple trees, that looked suspiciously like a tripwire. This part of the planet was supposed to be uninhabited and neither of you had seen any creatures big enough that would require a trap, but Leonard wasn’t taking any chances.

“Y/N! Don’t…!” Leonard sprang over towards you as quick as he could, throwing his backpack to the ground. You were only paying half attention, having grown accustomed to listening to Leonard’s constant protests and continued to walk as you gave him a lazy look back.

The look on Leonard’s face, and the fact that he was running, made you hesitate, but you had no idea what was causing the alarm. You checked your surroundings, but continued to put your foot down. Leonard got to you the second your foot grazed the tripwire. Leonard pushed you roughly to the side, making you land unceremoniously in a bush, taking your spot where you were standing.

“Leonard, what the hell?” You asked as you quickly got out of the bush, brushing yourself off. You looked over at Leonard when he didn’t answer. Your blood quickly turned to ice, heart stopping and climbing up into your throat, as your eyes went wide in horror.

Leonard was still standing in the same spot, looking down at himself, where not one but two arrows were sticking out of him, blood quickly soaking through his pants and shirt. One through his thigh and the second under his ribcage. Leonard looked back at you, shock written all over his face as he managed to mumbled a “dammit” and swiftly collapsed on the ground.

“Holy shit, Leonard!” You cried as you raced over to where Leonard fell. You quickly grabbed his face and thankfully he was still conscious, but you could see his eyes were already starting to glaze over slightly and his breathing was labored. Your hands quickly fell to where the arrows were, trying to access the damage they caused the best that you were able. Without thinking, you went to grab the arrow under his ribs to pull it out.

“No! Leave… Leave it.” Leonard wheezed, as he batted weakly at your hands, as his face twisted into a painful grimace as the blood continued to stream out of his wounds, soaking through his clothing.

“Shit, right, I’m sorry, I’m terrible under pressure.” You said as you bit your lip, cursing to yourself because you knew better. You took a deep breath, trying to calm down, freaking out wasn’t going to help Leonard in the least. You needed to stop the bleeding asap, Leonard was already looking pale. That’s when you noticed he no longer had his backpack.

“Dammit Leonard, what’d you do with your pack?” You asked rhetorically, scanning the jungle floor for wherever it fell. Leonard pointed weakly in the general direction where he threw it, the best he could remember. You followed his bloody, shaky finger and saw the bright blue pack laying on the jungle floor. You scrambled off of the jungle floor as quick as you could, fumbling for your comm in your pants the best you could with bloody hands.

“Jim! Jim! Leonard’s been injured! We need out of here now!” You yelled into your comm after fishing it out of your pants as you sprinted to Leonard’s discarded pack and racing back to where Leonard was laying. You skidded to a stop beside Leonard and dropped to your knees quickly before ripping open the pack.

“God help me, I don’t even know what half this stuff is Leonard.” You complained, mainly to keep yourself from freaking out more and to try and keep Leonard engaged. Despite the heat of the jungle, Leonard was shaking, you didn’t need to be a doctor to know that this was going from bad to worse.

“Y/N? Y/N? What’s happened? What’s going on?” You could barely hear coming from your pocket as Jim answered your earlier call. You didn’t have time to answer Jim back right now, Leonard needed you.

“Fuck this.” You said in frustration and dumped the contents of the pack on the ground. Finally finding what you were looking for, you got to work. You grabbed some scissors and began to cut Leonard’s shirt off where the arrow was. Fresh blood began to pour swiftly down Leonard’s side. Leonard groaned loudly, choking out a gasp as you applied slight pressure to the wound, and wrapped some gauze around the arrow and wound, trying to stop the bleeding the best you could.

“Hey, don’t you dare pass out on me, stay with me Len.” You ordered, smacking Leonard’s face lightly as he started to doze off. Leonard gasped again, eyes opening back up and stared back, slightly unfocused on your face, you knew he had to be holding on by a thread.

“That’s it, come on Len, you’re doing awesome.” You encouraged Leonard and kept talking with him, trying to keep him conscious as you moved down to his leg. You quickly cut off one pant leg and tried to lift his leg slightly so you could wrap the gauze around. Leonard cried out loudly as you lifted his leg, snapping him out of his haze.

“Dammit… woman.” Leonard choked out, face grimaced in pain, reaching out for you, his only source of comfort, with a blood slicked hand. Your heart broke at the sight, but you couldn’t comfort him just yet.

“Don’t “dammit” me, Len. I’ve got to wrap this before you bleed out all over this jungle floor! Is that what you want?” You asked, as you held the gauze up where Leonard could see it. You could tell what Leonard was saying just by the quick look he gave you.

“I’m so sorry, Len.” You said quietly as you lifted his leg slightly once more. Leonard’s cry was sharp and quick this time before he clamped his mouth shut, muffling his yells, biting on his lip as you wrapped his leg as tight and quick as you could.

You sat Leonard’s leg down gently but quickly when you realized that Leonard had gone quiet and scrambled back up to Leonard’s face. He was even paler than before, sweat beading and falling down his face, his breathing becoming more shallow and rapid.

“God dammit! Leonard!” You patted Leonard’s face, but he was out cold. You glanced down at Leonard’s wounds, the blood was already soaking through the bandages, they wouldn’t hold for very long and you didn’t have anymore gauze with you.

“Dammit Jim, where are you?!” You muttered as you glanced through all the hypos scattered around on the ground. Unfortunately you had no idea what any of them were, or if you did, you had no idea if they would help in this situation and the only one who did was currently passed out.

You wiped Leonard’s blood off your hands the best you could on your uniform and began to fumble for you comm once more, you weren’t sure how long Leonard could hold on, but before you could grab it, you felt yourself being enveloped in a warm light. You quickly grabbed onto Leonard as the two of you were beamed up.

You breathed out a heavy sigh as the two of you were beamed back aboard the Enterprise. That was at least one worry off your mind. The movement was immediate as the two of you materialized. Jim must have gotten everyone prepared. Both of you were gathered up, placed on stretchers and whisked immediately down to medical.

You were shaky, covered in Leonard’s blood, but thanks to his quick action, you were okay. You were released fairly quickly after a thorough check from one of the nurses on staff. Jim came down quickly after he heard the two of you had made it back, silently staying by your side as you got checked out.

“Where’s Leonard?” You asked simply to Jim as the nurse left the room. You got off the bed quickly and began making your way to Leonard’s office.

“They took him into surgery to remove the arrows and stop the bleeding. They said he was lucky they didn’t hit anything vital, missed his spleen and femoral artery, and lucky that you wrapped them up when you did. He lost a lot of blood.” Jim answered as he followed you to Leonard’s office, not wanting to leave you alone.

You closed your eyes tight, trying not to picture Leonard laying on the ground, covered in blood, but the memory was etched in your brain and it would be a long time before it went away. You just had to keep reminding yourself that you were okay and Leonard was going to be okay and that it didn’t turn out any worse.

You made your way into Leonard’s office quickly and headed straight to his private bathroom and shut the door behind you, leaving Jim on the other side of the door, looking sympathetic but otherwise standing silent, making sure you were going to be okay.

You quickly shed your clothes and turned on the shower as hot as it would go. You were thankful for the real water as you stepped in. The water immediately turned pink as the blood began to wash off your skin.

As you watched the blood swirl down the drain the feeling of guilt hit you like a ton of bricks. You were washing off blood, Leonard’s blood. Blood that probably would have never been there if you had listened to him and stuck to the small trail, or stopped when he yelled at you the first time.

You punched the shower wall but couldn’t bring yourself to put much force behind it before choking back a sob, quickly sticking your face under the spray to stop yourself from breaking down, you didn’t want Jim to hear you.

You scrubbed and scrubbed until every part of you was squeaky clean and the shower began to beep, signaling the end of the allotted water for the shower. Only then did you finally turn off the water and step out.

You dried yourself off and grabbed a clean pair of clothes you kept in there, just in case, before stepping out into the room once more, where Jim was still patiently waiting where you left him.

“You okay?” Jim asked quietly, lifting your chin so you had to look him in the eyes. Jim had always been protective of you since your academy days, in a big brother type of way.

“Yes, but no, I don’t know, Jim. I guess that depends on if Leonard’s really okay.” You replied, taking a deep shaky breath. You could feel your eyes begin to burn as tears started to well.

“Hey now, none of that.” Jim said quickly as he brought you in for a hug, holding you close. In that moment you were glad for Jim holding you up. “Leonard’s tougher than that and you know it. You think he’d really die before giving us a piece of his mind for making him go down to that planet?”

“I guess you’re right.” You chuckled airily, letting yourself get lost for a moment in Jim’s hug, to gather yourself before going to check on Leonard.

“Let’s go see how he’s doing.” Jim suggested as he took a step back. You nodded in agreement as the two of you made your way out of Leonard’s office.

You made your way quietly into Leonard’s room. The lights were on but Leonard was still asleep from surgery. You had expected that but you still frowned as you made your way to his side. You took in his bandaged leg that someone had propped up on a pillow and the bigger bandage that wrapped around his chest.

“I’ll go get us some coffee, you’re going to need it.” Jim offered as he patted your shoulder softly and then swiftly left the room without waiting for your reply. At times you were glad that Jim could read you almost as well as Leonard could.

You heard the rustling of sheets as Leonard shifted, groaning slightly as he opened his eyes, blinking rapidly at the bright lights, trying to gather his bearings. He was pretty sure he had been run over by a truck, a really big one.

“Lights thirty percent.” You said softly as you leaned over the bed slightly, brushing Leonard’s hair away from his eyes. You allowed yourself to breathe a small sigh of relief as you took in the brown and green swirls of those hazel eyes. You were thankful they were looking over at you.

Leonard blinked a few more times, adjusting better to the dim light, biting back another groan, he felt terrible. The memories of what happened coming none too fondly back to his mind.

“Hey there, handsome.” You said with a soft smile, hand resting on Leonard’s cheek, brushing his stubble gently with your thumb. “How do you feel?”

“Like hell.” Leonard rasped simply, rubbing his face against your hand gently before groaning again as he tried to move slightly into a more comfortable position.

“I bet you are, you just had some major surgery. Try not to move around so much.” You answered with a small smile, you were just happy that Leonard was okay as you helped him and fluffed his pillow. When you looked back up, Leonard was messing around with his IV weakly.

“What are you doing? Don’t mess with that.” You asked as you grabbed Leonard’s hand away gently from his IV, placing it back on the bed. Barely awake for five minutes after surgery and Leonard was already fussy, you laughed quietly to yourself and shook your head. This was going to be a long recovery at this rate.

“It’s uncomfortable and they didn’t even put it in right.” Leonard grumbled weakly as he went to go for the IV once more, but you grabbed his hand again and put it back on the bed and kept your hand on top of his to keep it there.

“Of course it’s uncomfortable, it’s an IV and however they put it in, it’s doing its job isn’t it? For once you’re not the doctor this time.” You reminded him with a soft laugh and a quick kiss. Putting up with Leonard as the patient wasn’t going to be fun for anyone but you were more than up to the task.

Leonard huffed quietly, he was too tired to put up a fight. He leaned back, head sinking further into his pillow tiredly as you sat down on the edge of the bed and took his hand into yours.

“You might have just saved my life, Len. I love you with all my heart, but you’re still an idiot you know.” You scolded lightly, but your words held no bite as you brushed your thumb across Leonard’s knuckles. Leonard snorted out a small, weak laugh as he brought his hand up to your cheek slowly.

“Maybe so darlin, but there’s no way I could live with myself if something happened to you and I could have done something about it.” Leonard said softly, gazing into your eyes for a moment before his hand fell heavily to the bed. You were about to reply when you heard the door open quietly behind you.

“So how does it feel to be on the other side of the scalpel Bonesy?” Jim’s voice wafted into the room as he made his way over to the foot of Leonard’s bed, handing you a cup of coffee with a wide grin on his face. Leonard groaned quietly and managed a slight eyeroll as he moved his head in Jim’s direction.

“Get lost, Jim.” Leonard grumped out, leaning his head back toward you, already done with Jim and the kid had barely had a chance to stop at the foot of the bed. Leonard would never let Jim live this incident down, ever.

“Not much fun is it? Glad to see your sarcastic, grumpy charm is still intact and undamaged.” Jim teased and he smirked at Leonard with a gleam in his eye, patting Leonard gently on the foot. Leonard glanced over at you, pleading at you with just his eyes, you gave him a small wink in return.

“Yanno, Jim. Leonard isn’t going to be in this bed forever, and I’m fairly certain that physicals are coming up here soon and his hypo hand is still undamaged.” You reminded Jim with a large smirk, sipping your coffee, as you watched Jim do the math in his head from his last physical.

“I have suddenly just remembered a very important meeting that I must attend. Bones get to feeling better, the ship is just too quiet without your dulcet tones yelling at everyone.” Jim gave Leonard a genuine smile and patted his foot again gently as he turned to make his exit.

“That’s my girl. Thank you, sweetheart.” Leonard breathed out a sigh of relief. You could see Leonard visibly relax now that Jim was gone. What little energy he had was now completely spent.

“You’re welcome, I learned from the best.” You laughed as you gave Leonard a quick kiss on the lips. “You still doing okay? Do you hurt?” You added in, concern laced in your features as you frowned slightly at his small grimace that he tried to hide.

“Maybe a little.” Leonard admitted after he returned your kiss, glancing up at you and you could see in his eyes that he was in pain, and you knew he’d never admit how much.

“I’ll go get a nurse, I’ll be right back.” You replied, sitting down your coffee as you made your way out of the room and flagged down a nurse. The two of you came back in and the nurse went to work on Len’s IV. The nurse quickly emptied the syringe and gave Leonard a smile before silently making her exit.

“That’s better.” Leonard groaned as the pain medicine made him warm and heavy, making his eyelids droop even further. You smiled to yourself as you adjusted Leonard’s pillow under his injured leg, making sure he was comfortable and went to sit down next to his uninjured side.

“You owe me big time yanno.” Leonard said groggily, trying to stay awake, as the medicine coursed through his veins quickly. Leonard wasn’t going to let you live it down for awhile either, but his threats were never sincere with you.

“I bet I can think of a few ways to repay you once you’re feeling better.” You replied with a wink and a small smile as you kissed Leonard gently. You had planned on making it up to him as many times as it took.

“I’m sure you can, sweetheart.” Leonard chuckled airily on your lips as he kissed you back, and gazed up at you with a small smile. You could see how tired he was as he kept fighting to keep his eyes open.

“I love you Len, more than words. Now get some rest.” You said seriously as you ran your fingers gently through Leonard’s hair, earning a quiet moan from the other as he leaned into your hand, eyelids finally falling closed.

“Love you too, more than anything.” Leonard mumbled out quietly, settling into the bed. You grinned to yourself as Leonard breathed out a sigh as he finally fell asleep. You sat a little better on the bed and lay next to Leonard on the edge and brought his head closer as you continued to play with his hair, with Leonard leaning unconsciously into you.

You glanced down at Leonard and his bandages again and grimaced again, thinking about how you could be the one laying on the bed instead. You were glad you weren’t but you hated even more that Leonard was the one here instead. You kissed Leonard’s forehead softly and resolved yourself that no one would be as spoiled aboard the Enterprise as Leonard would be as he healed. You rested your head on Leonard’s as you too followed him into sleep.


End file.
